Indiana Harris, Buffy Croft and The Mage's Curse
by Waith Shadow
Summary: A history project gives Xander and Buffy a new idea for Halloween which will change their lives for ever
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: I don't own any thing in this, even the idea for this story is not mine it came from Texaswookie's __Back Burner: __Relic Hunters Halloween through the Gate__, though I will say I was trying to think up an Indy story when I read this, I'm just changing it to fit my idea of how it should work. I'm also working with some ideas found in Tenhawk's__Alexander Harris__ and the Archeolojst's Fedora __again with my own ideas added_.

Indiana Harris and Buffy Croft and The Mage's Curse

It was his history teacher's fault that Xander Harris did not dress as a soldier for Halloween; she could tell the boy was smart but he lacked both the confidence to truly succeed and the interest in the subject needed to truly try. She could do very little for the first problem; she had her suspicions about his home life, but without any kind of proof there nothing she could do for him. But perhaps she could do something about the later, and maybe just maybe if he tried then he could gain the confidence to succeed. Her plan was simple, give Xander an extra credit project, he would read a biography on Doctor Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. and write a report on him. The plan worked; stories of adventure, romance, honor, and a deep love of the past started fire in the boy's mind and his grades began to improve accordingly. So it came as no surprise that when his friends Buffy and Willow were gushing over a 16th Century Noblewoman's gown at Ethan's costume shop while looking for a costume to were to the Trick-or-Treat safety program they had been forced into, Xander was able say something more impressive than a comment about women in spandex, "Oh please, weren't you two paying attention last week, Noblewomen of that time were barley educated, highly dolled up baby making machines, who's only goal in life was to crank out as many kid as possible for whatever Nobleman who they ended up stuck with. That's such a great thing for woman's lib isn't it?" That touched a nerve.

"Oh," Buffy said acid in her voice, "and just what would a modern liberated woman wear, Hmm Xander?"

Xander smiled, "How about a Noblewoman who can take care of herself, one who doesn't need a man to save her, a world renowned archeologist." He pointed, Buffy turned and saw costume that consisted of a green tank top, khaki short shorts, hiking boots, and a utility belt with grenades on the back and a pair of large hand guns on the sides, a Tomb Rader costume, "I was planning to go as Dr. Jones, you know the guy I told you about, that's why I got the whip and the gun, I have the rest of the costume at home, if you wear that we could be a team and stuff." That did sound nice but Buffy looked back at the dress and thought about her plan to impress Angel with how lady like she could be, it was a great plan but at the same time she had to admit Xander had some strong points, and she could hear the hope in his voice, she could tell that it would mean a lot to him if she went in the same theme as him, and she really wanted to do something to make up for saving him form Larry, and Buffy knew she would never be able to buy that dress anyway, and even if she could she didn't feel all that comfortable with acting like some submissive peace of fluff even for Angel. So that night Buffy Summers would go as Lady Lara Croft.

The night of Halloween came and Buffy found herself guiding a group of surprisingly well behaved kids, right now she was waiting for them by the Davis house, "So what did Mrs. Davis give you?" She asked as they gathered around her, they pulled out tooth brushes, "She must be stopped," she told them in a serious tone, "Lets hit one more house, we have a few more minutes before I have to get you back," she lead the children on oblivious to the fate Chaos Mage Ethan Rayne had in store for her.

Meanwhile in the backroom of the shop he had rented, Ethan was preparing for the ritual to put his plain into place, the statue was in place, he now wore the appropriate red robes, he kneeled down in front of the statue, cut his palms and began, "The world that denies, the thou in habit" as he said this he ran some blood along his forehead, just over his left eye, "the peace that ignores the," he did the same over his right, "Thou corrupt." He smeared a line of blood down the middle of his forehead. "Chaos, I remain as ever your faithful, degenerate, son." He finished with a smile. Continuing, he began to chant in Latin, "Janus, evoco vestram animam. Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas." (Janus, I invoke your spirit. Hear my plea. Seize the night for your own reason. Come, appear and show to us that which is infinite power.) He called to the god whose powers he intended to use to his own ends, "Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!" (The mask transforms itself into flesh and blood. Your holy presence curdles the heart. Janus! Take the night!) As the spell took hold of his victims Ethan raised his head with a wicked smile and summed up the darkness that would soon follow in one word, "Showtime."

Willow's first clue that something was wrong was when one of the children she was watching attacked the old woman who was handing out candy, she was saved when another child, this one also dressed as a monster attacked the first, before Willow could intervene she felt herself grow weak and she collapsed. The next thing she knew she was standing outside of her body, at the sight of herself on the floor she started to panic, "Oh my God, I'm a real ghost!" Just then she heard the sound of semiautomatic weapons fire and fallowed it to, Buffy! Her friend was blasting away at anything that moved in a threatening manner, "Buffy!" she called out as she got within hearing range.

Lara Croft was no stranger to strange things; her mother's disappearance had been just the first in a string of strange things that included the loss of her college friend Amanda Evert in Peru and that whole mess with the Scion, but suddenly finding herself in the middle of a small town during a pint-sized monster attack with no idea how she got there was a whole new level of strange even for her. She was just taking aim at a really ugly one when an American accented voice called out, "Buffy!" she spun around and aimed at the red haired young woman that was running up to her, the girl was dressed in cloths that were even less modest than her own tank top micro cargo shorts, her lower half was clad in a form fitting fake leather miniskirt, black pantyhose, and cheep leather boots, her shirt would have classified as a bra had it not been for its long sleeves, the mix of provocative and cheep, added with the slightly over the top make-up made it fairly clear that this girl was probably a prostitute, though she was a far deal prettier than most working girls Lara had run into in her travels. Lara aimed her H&K USP Matches at her as she came closer. "That's far enough." Willow stopped stunned by the fact that Buffy was acting like she didn't know her, aiming guns at her, and talking like Giles. "Buffy?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," 'Buffy' said, her noble English accent etched with concern and sympathy, "but you must have me confused with someone, my name is Lara Croft." That set Willow's brain into babble mode. "Oh-my-God-you-turned-into-your-costume-too."

"Excuse me but what did you say?" Lara asked, she knew over a dozen languages but even she could not follow what this girl had said regardless of the fact that she had spoken in her native tongue.

Willow figured that it was probably not a good idea to go into what was going on until they got out of the street and into somewhere so she said "look it's hard to explain we need to find Xander."

"Xander?" Lara asked, just as a group of monsters came in looking for a kill, "Look out!" Lara stepped in front of the girl.

"No Buffy! Their children!" Lara paused for just a second at that which was all the children-turned-monsters needed moving with inhuman speed they closed the gap with the Tomb Raider knocking her guns away, Lara growled in frustration and swung into action blocking and dodging she knocked out two but the last one came up behind her and tried to grab her, it would have succeeded had a bull whip snapped out at it, wrapping around his head a pulling it off balance. Lara and Willow looked in the direction of the whip's wielder; he wore khaki pants, a work bag, a leather jacket, and his face was covered by the brim of a worn brown fedora, as he stepped forward his head came up revealing his rugged face, dark brown eyes, and cocky grin, "That's no way to treat a lady," he said.

_AN: So this is my first chapter of my new story, a.k.a. the result of my love of Texaswookie's and Tenhawk's stories and writers bock on the Village Hidden on the Mouth of Hell, real quick I'll let you know that those two just scratched the surface of stories and crossovers you can do with this idea so I'm going to do at least a few more, this is a the first of serial series multi-crossover stories, you'll see where I plan to go soon, see you._


	2. Chapter 2

Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. was having a strange night; even for a man that had ridden with Pancho Vllia, survived the trenches of World War 1, lived in Chicago during the 1920's gang wars, seen the Ark of the Covenant with his own eyes, gotten brainwashed into being a Thuggee cultist, almost killed over the Holy Grail, stood face to face with the most evil man in over a hundred years as he signed his father's diary without even seeing what it was, become a Colonel in the OSS, and had his brain hijacked by a crystal skull; finding himself in the middle of suburbia during an attack of pint-sized monsters with no clue how he got there during an attack of pint-sized monsters was high up on his weird meter. Then there was this "ghost" hooker who wouldn't stop calling him 'Xander' for some reason, the crazy broad had taken him and some woman who called herself Lara Croft; an archaeologist he had never heard of, from a British noble family he never heard of; to a small suburban house that she said was 'Buffy's' as she called Lara, but Indy didn't think it was, it was a nice place but not the kind of place where a noble lady would live.

The hooker seemed to think she was in charge here and was trying to plan her next move when there was a banging at the door, the two archeologists moved towards the door.

"What are you doing?" ghost said in a panicky voice.

"Seeing who it is, it could be someone needing help." Indy said as if it was obvious.

"Or a mini-demon." girl snapped back.

"Then we'll deal with it," Lara said as if it was obvious. Just then one of the three small windows broke as a monstrous hand was pushed through.

"Mini-demon!" the red head screamed. Indy braced the door while Lara moved up and aimed her gun at the ceiling of the front porch she fired off two rounds, the monster's mind was little more than animal instinct and the loud noise triggered the thing flight response causing it to flee as fast as it could. Lara looked at the girl.

"Big noise scare bad monster away." She said as if she was talking to a small child. Really this girl was getting on her nerves; first she wouldn't stop calling 'Buffy'; second she seemed to think she was the one in charge, but her skills in that area were clearly lacking as she had no intention of telling ether her or Indiana what was going on, it was not something Lara was use to, she always knew what was going on and she was usually the one in charge and she did not like giving that up to some panicky teenager who she couldn't touch.

A scream pierced the night, "Shit!" Indy cursed as he headed out the door, Croft was not far behind. The two archaeologists ignored the ghost's cries to get back inside were it was "Safe" really did this kid really think that they would stay still while someone was in trouble?

Cordelia Chase was running for her life from some weird werewolf/Dog man monster, was just one night to much to ask in this crazy town, and were was Buffy when you need her? Just as the monster was about to get to her Buffy finally appeared, though she was following Xander Harris, why the hell would little miss Super Slayer be following her sidekick? She didn't have long to wonder as Xander pulled a whip from his belt and with a loud crack used it like a lion tamer and dog boy was his lion.

"Come along," said Buffy in a high class British accent that was the least weird thing the other teen had encountered that night, Cordelia followed the blond turned brunet wondering just what was going on, and if this really meant that she owed Xander "Dork-boy" Harris her life.

Willow was starting to hyperventilate, in reality as she was a ghost this was all in her head as she had no lungs to hyperventilate with, but as things were spiraling out of control she could not be slighted for freaking out. Just then Buffy came in with Cordelia, Xander following behind as if guarding the rear, "Cordelia!"

"Wait a-What's going on?

_Okay first things first,_ She thought, "Okay, your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school, and we're your friends. Well, sort of."

"That's nice Willow," the teen in a cat suit said in a faults sweet voice surprising the red head, "and you went mental when?"

"You know us?" Willow asked in shock.

"Yeah, lucky me, What's with the name game?"

"A lot is going on."

"No Kidding, I was just attacked by Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume! Do you really think that Partytown's gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely."

Indy took off his jacket and placed it on the girl's shoulders, "Here."

"Thanks."

"Okay." The red haired girl, "You guys stay here while I get some help. If something tries to get in, just fight it off."

Lara was tired of being left in the dark, "And why should we do what you ask?" she asked.

Cordilea was surprised to hear a high class British accent still coming from the valley girl slayer, "What's with the lady Giles?"

"I-it's like amnesia, okay? They don't know who they are. Just sit tight." Willow said, and then without bothering to answer Lara's question she walked through the wall and out of the house.

"Who Died and left her in charge?" The High School Queen asked.

"I have no Idea," Lara said, "but whoever it was I want to punch their bloody lights out."

"That makes two of us," Indy agreed. "Let's look for anything in this house we can use." With that they started to search the house.

AN: Finally it's here, I meant to have this done a week ago but I'm in the middle of a two month block of seven day work week, long story, so things are going to be real slow until August at least, depending on where I go with this story there will be 2 to 4 more chapters in this story before I move on to the next in the series


	3. Chapter 3

The group had just started to search the house when Indiana's instincts, hound in both World Wars, went off. The two archeologists silently moved, taking up positions on ether side of the door a few seconds before a handsome young looking man came in the doorway only to be tackled to the ground buy two expert fighters. Angel had been looking for Buffy, The Vampire with a Soul had noticed the chaos in the street and with a single-minded determination made his way to Buffy's home, to see if she was okay, and then figure out what was going on, he made it through the kitchen and was just moving into the living room when he was hit on both sides by powerful blows that knocked him off his feet, he was then grabbed and turned over to find him self looking down the barrels of two pistols, one a semi-automatic and the other a revolver, Angel felt shore at this range the guns would take off enough of his head to dust him. It took a minute for him to realize just who was holding guns on him, Buffy and Xander.

"Guys, what are you doing?"

This didn't get a response until Cordilea's voice called out, "Angel? No you guys let him up!"

"Are you crazy lady?" Xander asked. " He's as cold as ice and is as white as a ghost, that screams vampire to me, and I've run into my share of them, so I say we take care of this guy."

"I don't care, He's one of the good guy's so let him go." The relic hunters shook their heads and haled in-souled vampire up.

"What's going on?" Angel asked.

"It's complicated, they don't know how they are." Cordy said. Angel had been around spells long to peace together what must have happened tonight form this information and was smart enough to let it go and concentrate on the problem at hand.

After a few minutes of explanation had passed, nether relic hunter was at all happy, "So Willow left us here, in a house that's barley secure while she went to get help to end this debacle, that involves ancient languages, ones we know no less, TO KEEP US _SAFE!" _Indy asked incredulously.

"That sounds about right." Angel said, vaguely aware that the two spell victims, which only served to anger them further.

"Okay Screw that, we're going to this library," Lara said, "and your taking us."

Her voice was mater of fact but the implied threat was received, if Angel didn't help them or gave them one sign that he was anything like the vampires they knew Lara would test just how hard it was to kill a vampire with her guns, something angel was not very keen to try out, as Darla had shown him being shot hurt like hell. "Alright but stay close, it's Crazy outside."

"I've seen worse," Indy said.

Spike like most demons found Halloween annoying, really the fact that the humans were making light of the terror he had worked so hard to perform made him sick. But then Dru had peaked his interest by saying something about the stars saying the Slayer and her "Kitten" becoming searchers for facts and bones, armed with whips and lead, what ever that meant, and he had been out of scotch; so he had gone out to get some more and maybe see what the hell his beloved was talking about. When he reached the human populated parts of town he had been surprised find the area full of mayhem as pintsized monsters, Spike the master-class vampire had seen many things in the slightly over 100 years he since had been the mortal William Pratt, at least in mind and body if not soul, but nothing he had seen had compared to this, the sheer mindless anarchy of it and the variety of the monster was beyond any thing he had seen before. Most vampires didn't like change, The Master for one had been stuck on his same Old Ones are gods of darkness down with all that is good in general and Christianity in particular plan scene the Middle Ages, but Spike was different, the man William had been a romantic who had been unable to find his place in the high class society world he had been born in and had fallen into depression, the vampire Spike was a dark romantic that shunned society, even vampire society, for his own Rock & Roll Big Bad code. For one such as him there was only one response to a situation such as this.

"Well this is just, neat!"

Angel was highly aware of Buffy's eyes on him, not filled with love but with suspicion, Lara would not hesitate to use her guns to blow his brains out, something he suspected would count as decapitation. The anarchy in the streets was unbelievable; in the back of his mind Angel could hear the demon, Angelus laughing in glee, this was turning into the kind of chaos and destruction the demon had worked hard to achieve for 200 years but had never quite reached. The other three were handling the chaos surprisingly well, Cordilea seemed only slightly out of her element, not jumping at everything like Angel would have expected, the other two where taking it all in like they had been through this all before.

As they neared the School Angel caught a familiar sent in the air, a mix of blood, dust, whiskey, cheap cigarettes, and leather, just then Spike stepped into there path, surrounding him were a small army of Trick-or-Treaters turned monsters.

"Hello you lot where are you of to in such a hurry?" The bleach haired vampire said with a smile.

AN so one more chapter to go and then on to the next in the in the Indiana Harris Buffy Croft Series


End file.
